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Wednesday, 4 July 2012

Karl Vadaszffy interview: The Missing

John Simmons’ girlfriend disappears, but
the police doubt she ever existed. Is she a hallucination, or the next murder
victim of a serial killer?

What have you done/are you doing to market it?

The Missing has been
reviewed by a number of bestselling authors, including Glenn Cooper, Matt
Hilton, James Becker, Elly Griffiths, Scott Phillips, Patrick Lennon, CM Palov
and Thomas Perry. Their blurbs have been really effective in persuading readers
to take the chance with an unknown author. I’ve also used social media a lot –
its Facebook following is increasing and I’ve managed to get a lot of retweets
by celebrities and well-known authors. I think it’s primarily because of these
that The Missing broke the Amazon UK Kindle top ten.

Do you bear the reader in mind when you're
writing? If so, how does that affect the way you write?

Yes. I’m a keen
reader, so I pay attention to how I feel while I’m writing. There were several
moments while writing The Missing when I felt incredibly tense, so I took that
as a good sign. I knew I had to keep the story moving fast, so I thought very
carefully about what needed to be included in the narrative and what was
superfluous. Yes, I wanted character development and a sense of place, but I
didn’t want to labour any point.

Who would you like to direct the film
adaptation?

I think author Scott
Phillips answered this question best with his blurb about The Missing: "It's a shame Hitchcock isn't around to film it, it's exactly
the kind of story he did best." Ok, so Hitchcock won’t ever be possible,
so a contemporary director I think builds tension excellently is Bryan Singer
(The Usual Suspects).

If you were able to co-write a novel with any
author of your choosing, who would it be?

There are so many
answers to this question, but if I’ve got my crime thriller hat on I’d have to
say Sophie Hannah, the author of Little Face, which inspired The Missing. She
really knows how to put a character in a situation that seems impossible to
escape from, her characters are vividly presented and the tension she builds is
palpable. Hers are amazing books.

Put these in order of importance: language,
character, plot, money.

The English teacher in
me says language, but when you consider what’s popular, language is often one
of the last things of importance. I think it starts with the plot, then you
build your characters around it, then you tell their story in a way that’s as
well written as possible, and if you make any money out of it you’re incredibly
lucky.

How would you describe your taste in books?

Varied and
unpredictable. The only thing I can say with any degree of certainty is I can’t
stand Jane Austen’s books. I enjoy crime thrillers very much – Sophie Hannah,
Harlan Coben and John Harvey to name a few – but I’m also a huge fan of darker
character-led dramas such as Ian McEwan’s The Cement Garden. I also enjoy reading
plays, particularly those by Tennessee Williams. And I’m not afraid of a
classic or two. Wilkie Collins is high on my list.

What are you reading now?

I always have three or
four books on the go – and rarely have enough time to read them for the amount
of time they deserve. At the moment, I’m reading Birdsong by Sebastian Faulks
(for the A Level course I teach), Guilt By Association by Marcia Clark (for
entertainment) and Bram Stoker’s Dracula (I always have a classic in the pile).
I’ve just bought The Fear Index by Robert Harris to add to it. Not long ago, I
finished The Woman in Black by Susan Hill – atmospheric and chilling. Susan
Hill and I actually have the same literary agent and The Woman in Black plays a
part in The Missing (we didn’t share a literary agent while I was writing The
Missing, so this is entirely coincidental).

Which writer do you most admire?

Again, there are many,
but the writer who’s had the greatest impact on me is Ian McEwan. I remember
reading The Cement Garden when I was eighteen and thinking this amazing book is
like a literary car crash: you know you shouldn’t look, but you can’t stop
yourself. It’s a captivating story, expertly told, and it made me want to
write. So I wrote my first book, Full of Sin, as a direct result. I wanted to
create my own car crash; I wanted to shock the reader, yet find a way to make
them want to read on. Then Harlan Coben drew me to crime fiction and Sophie
Hannah inspired me to write The Missing.

What are your ambitions for the next year?

The next book has to
be written. My agent, Sonia Land, and I have been discussing it recently. It
has a unique selling point and we think it has the potential to be a really
interesting spin on the crime genre. There will also be some elements in it
that will have very close links to my family’s past. I’ve started it and hope
the first draft will be completed by the end of the summer.

What are your long-term ambitions?

Be a writer. Make
enough of a living out of it to survive. I don’t need to be rich from writing –
I just want to see my books on the shelves in Waterstone’s and WH Smith, and
abroad.

Do you write outside of the crime genre? If
not, would you like to?

Yes. Full of Sin isn’t
a traditional crime story, although there are elements of the crime genre in it.
It’s more of a dark human drama. It follows a character, Sean, who is born into
a desperate life and it focuses on his journey towards rehabilitation after he
sins too much. I’d like to write more novels like Full of Sin, while also
writing more crime thrillers.

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About Me

I'm a Scottish writer. My debut novel, TWO-WAY SPLIT, was shortlisted for the CWA Debut Dagger award and went on to win the Theakston's Crime Novel Of The Year. I'm the author of four other novels: KISS HER GOODBYE (nominated for an Edgar), HARD MAN, SAVAGE NIGHT and SLAMMER and three novellas: KILL CLOCK , KILLING MUM and BYE BYE BABY, a Top Ten Kindle Bestseller. I'm also a co-founder (with Kyle "Smudge" MacRae) of digital publishing company, Blasted Heath, and a literary agent with Jenny Brown Associates.